Patients can also give their consent for contact directly from within their MyChart patient portal account (sign up to MyChart here MyChart – Sign Up (addenbrookes.nhs.uk) and can update or change their contact preferences at any time. MyChart – allowing patients of Addenbrooke’s and The Rosie hospitals secure electronic access to parts of their hospital medical record – provides options to be contacted about observational studies, interventional studies or both. Observational studies are research studies where researchers collect information from participants and/or their biological samples (such as blood or urine) or look at data that has already been collected (in health records, for example), without making any changes to a patient’s usual care. Interventional studies are those that are testing new treatments or diagnostics, such as clinical trials of new vaccines or medicines.
Professor Miles Parkes, Director of the NIHR Cambridge BRC and consultant gastroenterologist at CUH said: “We are thrilled to have this new capability that enables patients to let us know if they would like to be contacted by our research teams directly about potentially taking part in research.
“Over the past 10 years researchers in Cambridge have made some significant discoveries that are changing the way we deliver healthcare, and that is thanks to the people who choose to participate in research. We know research saves lives and having more people take part in research will not only accelerate our work but help our understanding of some of the most complex health conditions we face today.”